Mother and Daughter Killed in Suspected Grizzly Attack Near Bella Coola, B.C.

A mother and daughter from Bella Coola, British Columbia, were killed in a suspected grizzly bear attack while walking a trail just minutes from their home, authorities and family members said.

Jennifer Balcarras, 48, an art therapist, and her 20-year-old daughter Selah Reed, a teaching assistant, went missing Saturday on the Snooka West Trail, a five-minute drive from their house. Balcarras’ brother Matt Balcarras told the Vancouver Sun that the alarm was raised when she failed to show up for a scheduled online catch-up.

Balcarras’ body was found Monday, mauled, and her daughter’s body was recovered a day later, on Tuesday.

Jeff Tyre of the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service said “there was evidence to suggest a [grizzly] bear may have been involved.” Officials have not detailed the specific evidence but said they are “working to locate and capture any bears involved,” language that leaves open the possibility more than one animal was responsible.

“It is not yet clear whether more than one bear was involved. Any captured bear will be assessed. If it is determined to have been involved in the attack, it will be dispatched in accordance with provincial human-wildlife conflict response guidelines to protect public safety,” conservation officials said.

‘Not remote,’ family says

Matt Balcarras said the location of the attack made it especially hard to comprehend.

“It’s very close to town and it’s not remote. They were not naive city folks. They were strong women living the life.”

Another brother, Josh Balcarras, told CBC the walk had been nothing out of the ordinary. “It’s surreal,” he said. “It doesn’t seem real. It feels like a dream.”

Balcarras had recently settled in Bella Coola, an unincorporated community of roughly 2,000 people about 268 miles from Vancouver, to “pursue a new career and begin a new chapter in her life,” according to friends who set up a GoFundMe for her three surviving adult children.

“She was working toward building a future and had not yet had the opportunity to establish savings or put aside funds to help her family with unexpected expenses such as these,” the fundraiser states. “Tragically, no one could have anticipated that her family would be faced with such an unimaginable loss.”

Of Reed, the fundraiser said she “was just 20 years old, with her whole life ahead of her. She was only beginning her journey into adulthood, making this loss even more heartbreaking.”

Reed was Balcarras’ youngest child. Josh Balcarras described mother and daughter as “two peas in a pod,” telling CBC: “She liked a lot of the same things Jenny liked. I think they got along really, really well. When Jenny hiked, Selah was right there beside her.”

Second serious bear incident in a year

The deaths come less than a year after 11 people were attacked by a bear near Bella Coola in November 2025, an incident that left three children in critical condition. That bear was believed to have had two cubs with it at the time.